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Blog Category: Ford

The 2015 Auto Show Season is well under way and as always January started off with the Car and Truck of the Year Awards at the 2015 North American International Auto Show. Many industry insiders had predicted that the 2015 Ford Mustang would win Car of the Year and were surprised when the winner was announced as the

Ford has had the best-selling truck in America for the past 37 years and for the past 32 years the F-150 has also been the best-selling vehicle in America. Overall annual sales of the F-150 is higher than many smaller manufacturer’s sales for their whole vehicle lines. Now for 2015 the F-150 has been redesigned with a much anticipated aluminum-body construction and many other innovative features.

You’ve waited all year to get a new car. Thanksgiving has passed and the end of the year is nearly here. New auto dealers are anxious to make great deals on 2013 new cars before the year ends. For anyone shopping for a new vehicle there are great deals to be had from most manufacturers. Many times manufacturers of the best-selling models keep the incentives strong to maintain their dominance in the category.

Last week over 2400 companies gathered in Las Vegas to showcase the latest in products designed to improve performance, safety and convenience, and enhance appearance and comfort in every make and model on the road today. Every year top vehicles in four categories are selected for the SEMA Award, recognizing vehicle models that specialty-equipment manufacturers believe are the best platforms for accessorization and that showcase the year's coolest products.

International Bacon Day was this past Saturday and bacon festivals were held all across the United States. To celebrate America’s obsession with bacon and to promote the customization options available for the Fiesta Ford has introduced a full wrap of bacon that covers the whole car. Options range from mini strips for just under $80 to the complete wrap for $3,347.00 plus installation costs.

Five out of ten brands selected by Interbrand as the Best Global Green Brands of 2013 are automotive companies. With offices around the world Interbrand is the world’s largest brand consultancy, working with the biggest brands. To choose the 50 Best Global Green Brands Interbrand starts with the 100 brands that make up its annual Best Global Brands report and conducts extensive consumer research to capture public opinion of the brand's sustainable or green practices and compares that to performance data provided by Deloitte regarding the companies’ environmental sustainability practices.

The twelfth annual North American Concept Vehicle of the Year Award winners were announced earlier this week. The awards recognize concept vehicles most likely to affect change in the automobile industry. The selection process involved a total of 23 vehicles that were previously introduced to North America during this season's (2012-2013) auto shows in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, and New York. More than two dozen jurors collectively selected the winners in three categories: Production Preview Vehicles, Concept Cars, and Concept Trucks.

Consumer Reports has released their annual reliability rankings (subscription required to view full rankings), with Japanese automakers, led by the Toyota brands, taking the top seven spots on the list. Ford meanwhile, sank towards the bottom of the list, finishing next-to-last, with their premium brand, Lincoln, only one slot higher.

Toyota, which had suffered some highly-publicized setbacks in recent years, including issues with unintended acceleration, is surely buoyed by these results, with Scion, Toyota and Lexus landing the top three spots in the ratings. Another feather in the Toyota cap: the top vehicle overall was the Toyota Prius C.

Halloween is here, and folks of all ages will be dressing up as their favorite characters and heading to Halloween parties or hitting the streets for tricks or treats. This got us thinking about some very distinctive-looking cars; vehicles with character to spare. So we here at AutoBuying101.com have picked our Top 10 Cars With Character for Halloween. We’ve gathered up photographic evidence to illustrate our picks, and we think you’ll be amazed by the resemblances.

For a number of years, Toyota’s Prius has been the nation’s best-selling, most feature-packed hybrid vehicle. It’s the hybrid that’s been the most efficient product on the market. This is no longer the case. The 2013 C-MaxEnergi, from Ford, has just taken over the title of most “fuel-efficient” Hybrid on the market.

As auto buyers, we tend to focus most of our energy on the purchase cost of our vehicles, and other than fuel cost, we spend less time thinking of the ongoing costs. Of course, figuring our fuel cost is relatively simple; the MPG is listed right on the window sticker and with a little quick math in our head, we can easily guesstimate our gas bill.

In a land where lumbering SUVs once roamed like so many dinosaurs, small car sales have grown to levels not seen is nearly 20 years, so says a report on Bloomberg.com.

One reason is obvious; soaring gas prices. It is a knee-jerk consumer reaction proven time and again; when gas prices rise, so too do sales of gas-efficient cars. And save for an early summer respite, we’ve seen gas prices rise all year.

The Paris Auto Show (Mondial de l’Automobile, if we’re being fancy) opened this week, and while the bulk of debuts shown there will be Euro-centric, there are a several vehicles with U.S. relevance appearing for the first time. Let’s take a peek.

The Golf debut may not move the U.S. curiosity meter as much as, say, a fullsize pickup or midsize sedan, but it is VW’s most significant model worldwide, and each new generation is a big deal for a company gunning for #1 in the world.

As we near the end of the month (which we already know is the best time to buy a car, right?) it’s a good time to take a look at which 2012 vehicles have the biggest discounts. If you are flexible in your choice of vehicle, you can score some big savings.

TrueCar takes a look each month at what makes, models, and categories are, on average, being discounted the most. Lets take a closer look at their findings.

Ford has high hopes for its newly designed 2013 Ford Fusion midsize sedan. The outgoing Fusion did reasonably well, but the design had grown stale, and in a hotly contested segment with brand new entries in the Honda Accord and Nissan Altima, Ford is looking to make a big move up the sales charts.

The debut of a new vehicle is a heady time for both automakers and consumers. The automakers gets to strut their stuff: sleek new designs, performance improvements, cutting edge technology. Consumers get exciting new vehicle choices to provoke them to pry open their checkbooks.

It does present a conundrum for the automakers, though. In our world of instant digital communication, the news of upcoming new models spreads faster than crabgrass. As consumers begin to drool over the new sheetmetal, inevitably there are lots full of the now unfashionable outgoing models that still need to be moved.

The competition in the compact car segment has become fierce, with many automakers making strong attempts to unseat the perennial class leaders, the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. So strong, in fact, that Honda is hastening a mid-cycle refresh of its roundly-panned latest generation Civic, and Toyota has promised a much less boring Corolla. Look to the boldly styled Hyundai Elentra, Euro-inspired Ford Focus, and Alfa Romeo-based Dodge Dart as evidence of the importance of the segment.

AutoBuying101.com, has announced its 2012 selections for the Top 10 Hardest Working Autos, including pickup truck, crew truck, cargo van, family, city, and luxury options. This list includes a variety of vehicles that offer the utility, capability and versatility to accomplish the tasks at hand. The full list can be viewed in our Reports Section here. See the press release on PR Web.

Two reports, by AutoMD and Black Book, are showing that owners are holding on to their vehicles longer and for more miles than ever, as reported by The Detroit Bureau. Ten years and 150,000 miles are no longer unusual.

The AutoMD survey showed 78% of owners plan to keep their vehicle for more than 10 years, with only 3% expected to change cars within 3 to 5 years. And according to the Black Book Study, most trade-ins will have 125,000 to 150,000 miles by the time owners get a new vehicle.

This is a significant change from the glory days of the automotive past.

Autobytel, in conjunction with automotive research firm AutoPacific have released their 2012 Ideal Vehicle Awards. The IVAs are based on a survey of over 75,000 vehicle owners from the full spectrum of major manufacturers. The survey touched upon 15 different categories spanning all aspects of their vehicles inside and out, from styling to performance to comfort.

"The significance of the Ideal Vehicle Awards is that they identify the automotive manufacturers that are listening to their buyers when updating and developing their latest cars," said George Peterson, President of AutoPacific.

Automakers have been using aluminum in cars for several decades. Gearheads will fondly remember GM’s 350LT-1 V8 with cast aluminum block and heads of yesteryear. Most automakers have stopped making cast aluminum blocks due the expense, but most of them are still using aluminum heads in their 4-cylinder engines. There is now a race to do everything possible to meet the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements set to take affect soon. Some automakers are going back to incorporating aluminum into their designs. And many are doing away with steel body panel construction in favor of stamped aluminum panels.

We’ve reached the peak of summer, and Americans everywhere are readying for their vacations. They’ll be packing their gear, loading the cars, and hitting the open road for a memorable journey.

The road trip is an authentic American experience made all the more enjoyable by the right vehicle. Whether you’re solo or a family of seven, whether you're heading to the beach or the mountains, there’s a great road trip vehicle out there for you.

Are you looking for the newest of the new? It’s the heart of the summer, but 2013 models are on the way soon, and some are already in the showrooms. Kelley Blue Book published a rundown of the early arrivals; let’s look at some of the highlights.

Shrinking SUVs

Yes, car buyers can be as fickle as gas prices, and their buying habits closely mirror the price on the pump. But manufacturers know they need to improve MPG while still satisfying our demand for SUVs and crossovers. Hence the trend towards smaller SUVs and CUVs. Several are already on the slate for 2013.

Here's a tidbit about the inner workings of car dealerships that can help save you money. Car dealers don’t buy their new cars outright from the manufacturers, they finance them. For the duration that each car sits on their lot, they pay interest on the financing. When the car is sold, they pay off the loan.

So, putting on our MBA hats and crunching the numbers, it makes sense for a dealer to sell a particular car as quickly as they can; the longer a car sits on the lot, the more interest they pay. The more interest they pay, the lower their profit. Pretty straightforward, right?

When we hear that a car is not selling particularly well, our spidey senses start tingling. Our intuition is that when they're not moving metal, there are probably going to be great deals available.

Automobile magazine recently published an article called The Best Cars That Nobody Buys. They looked at eight very competent and seemingly desirable vehicles, offering some analysis on why these cars may not be selling.

Let's take it one step further and see if, in reality, there are great deals to be had on these eight poor-selling cars.

The laws of nature in the automotive ecosystem used to hold that the bigger the car, the bigger the engine. Small cars got the four-bangers, big cars got V8s, and 6-cylinders fell in between. And, if you wanted to make a premium or performance version of a particular model, just shoehorn in a bigger engine. Simple as that: Bigger is better. There was no problem that couldn’t be cured with cubic inches.

With auto sales scorching this year, the simple law of supply and demand would suggest that great deals would be harder to find than normal. With vehicles moving briskly off the lots, there is less motivation to offer strong incentives. To a large extent this is proving to be the case in the marketplace, but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t some deals to be had out there.

Do you love big V8 engines with deep burbling exhausts, and smoking your rear tires with burnouts at every stoplight? If so, you are dismissed for the day. Today we’re looking at the opposite end of the performance spectrum. They are lightweight, they have high-revving 4-cylinder mills, propulsion is delivered via their front wheels, they are the econoboxes gone wild: the hot hatch.

Don’t worry, still plenty of testosterone to go around, fellas. They may look like toys compared to a traditional muscle car, but there are thrills aplenty behind the wheel. You can still generate blue smoke; it’ll just be from the front wheelwells instead of the rear.

“Be American, Buy American.” That was a popular bumper sticker from not all that long ago. The Big Three’s dominance of the American car buying market had slipped dramatically to Japanese imports, the Japanese economy looked like a juggernaut threatening the stability of our own economy, and the patriotic cry was to support American industry by buying American cars. Of course, it was easy to make the distinction then; If it was from Ford, GM, or Chrysler it was an American car. Everything else was an import.

Years of advancements in controlling NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) have made cars quieter than ever. Insulated firewalls, laminated glass, triple door seals, even electronic noise cancelling have all conspired to give our cars a coffin-like silence. Not just luxury makes either. They may have escalated the the war on noise, but the technology has trickled down to even the most lowly of vehicles. Small cars that were once notorious for being not just tiny, but tinny as well, now offer peaceful passenger compartments that rival grandpa’s Buick.

Most car buyers are fully aware of the “leftover” concept. The model year is drawing to a close, next year’s models are already making their way into showrooms, but inevitably dealers still have a few of last year’s version hanging around their lots. Much dealmaking ensues, with gaudy ads ballyhooing big discounts: “Everything Must Go! We Need to Clear Space for the 2013’s!” And indeed it is true. Even though next year’s model may be virtually identical to the current year’s car, with changes that are nearly indistinguishable to the untrained eye, that incremental digit on the back end of the model year pushes the previous edition to the discount rack. Smart shoppers rejoice.

The school year is rapidly drawing to a close, and graduation day is just around the corner. Just as mortarboards will be soon be cluttering the afternoon sky, the internet is cluttered with articles about the best cars for teens and grads. A quick search turns up more than you can shake a tassel at.

All of these articles identify safety and reliability as key factors in selecting a car for your kid, but some include other considerations such as insurance costs. Considerate of your bank account, half of these lists look at used cars, but for you big spenders, there are a few lists that feature reasonably priced new cars. Let’s take a quick look at some of these articles, understand their criteria, and see if we can identify some consensus.

Think about what you’re looking for in your next new vehicle or even what it is you like about your current vehicle. Chances are that you’ll list comfort high on the list. Seats that support your back and legs, lots of room so you’re not knocking elbows with your passengers, room for any gear you need to bring with you, and a quiet ride - yes - we all want a comfortable ride.

In every industry, perception and what we think of specific companies, brands and logos goes a long way in contributing to our purchase decisions. When it comes to buying a new car or truck, this brand awareness and perception goes a long way in how we research our vehicle purchases and ultimately in the vehicle we choose to buy.

Wednesday was a big day for the auto industry - it was numbers day. On February 1, the major automakers released their sales numbers for 2011, their profit numbers, January sales numbers for 2012, and their predictions for 2012 overall.

A search of the Internet will reveal multiple articles that detail the sales numbers for each and every automaker. Yes, the numbers are important but for this blog post, we’ll focus on the big three U.S. automakers and try not to get to wrapped up in percentages.

We all spend a lot of time in our vehicles. Driving to and from the office, dropping off and picking up the kids from school and their activities, running errands around town, traveling during vacations, and of course all the time spent stuck in traffic. This adds up to a lot of time being spent in one smallish space and translates into having less time to take care of some of the important realities of life.

If you ask a teen driver or new driver what kind of first car they want, they likely will answer with something along the lines of “it has to be cool”. A cool car - who doesn’t want a cool car? Problem is that typically a cool car comes with a hefty price tag. Well, just in time for the holiday season and for the best month to buy a car, we’ve got a list of the 10 coolest cars available for under $18,000.

People may be surprised to learn that the new 2012 Ford Focus Electric was part of Ford’s plan all along. Well, maybe not the Focus in particular, but Ford has had all-electric battery-powered vehicles in development for years. What better way to introduce a zero-emissions passenger vehicle than to put the new technology in a familiar and already eco-friendly form?

Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way: it’s a five-door hatchback Focus with a 123-hp electric motor powered by lithium ion batteries. It needs a 240-volt outlet to charge in 3-4 hours, and it has a top speed of 84 mph.

It’s not much of a surprise that poll numbers supported the recent federal government decision to raise CAFE (that stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards to 54.5 mpg by 2025. Given the fact that fuel prices are only going to creep ever upward -- not to mention the environmental costs of getting the gas from the ground to the pump -- drivers are realizing the benefits of high-mileage vehicles. It helps, too, that technology is improving, with hybrid systems, valve shutoff systems, direct injection, and clean diesels that all deliver a fun driving experience with better fuel economy.

If you were in the market for a green car ten years ago, your choices were few and far between. The Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid were newly available -- and rarer than hens’ teeth. Now it seems like every third driveway has a hybrid in it, and all-electric cars are moving from hobbyists’ garages to the mainstream vehicle marketplace.

When Kelley Blue Book, a well-known authority on vehicle prices and buying trends, published its annual list of the Top Ten Green Cars for 2011, it had lots of eco-friendlier cars to choose from, and they’re not all limited to that one special dealership in Los Angeles. You can find most of these cars most anywhere.

According to JD Power and Associates, despite modest improvement in initial quality on both newly developed models and new version of existing models over the last 5 years, the trend has not continued and initial quality for newly developed models for 2011 is down, as is reported in the organization’s newest study.

The Initial Quality Study, conducted by JD Power for the last 25 years, is a survey of recent buyers and lessees of 2011 models. Owners are contacted after 90 days with the cars and are given a 228-question survey designed to provide the manufacturers with information to “facilitate identifying problems and drive product improvement.”

Anytime I hear someone exclaim loudly, “I only buy American” when asked about his car preference, I have to laugh. Apparently nobody told him about what really is “American” these days.

In fact, do you know what counts as American these days?

I’ll tell you what the auto industry thinks: regardless of where the company headquarters itself, regardless of where the lineage of the car points to and regardless of which nation claims the manufacturer as their own, a car’s primary nationality is truly about where the car is assembled.

"Back To Football"...If you are a football fanatic, you know exactly what this quote means...after the offseason soap opera of the NFL Lockout, fans across the country were thrilled to see everything put to bed with the owners and players getting back to focusing on what millions of Americans love....football. Between the upcoming professional and college seasons, for the next 5 months, millions of fans, every weekend, will load up their beloved car, truck, SUV, or hybrid and head out to a fun filled day of tailgating. Yes, other sports may get the occasional tailgating group, but football, more than any other sport, brings out the tailgaters. And thus, our vehicles play a critical role in our game day experience.

NADAguides.com, one of leading vehicle pricing and information sites, released its list of Best Car Buys for 2011, with Honda dominating the list with 5 models while Kia, Toyota and Chevrolet had 3 models across multiple categories.

The list, which was created based on value, efficiency, consumer piece of mind, and safety ratings cover a variety of vehicle types including Vans, Wagons, Sedans, Luxury, Coupes, Sports, SUVs, Trucks, and Hybrids.

The reason is simple: there are some really great deals to be gotten if you know what to look for and how to spot them. Our friends at Edmunds have put together their annual Edmunds Used Car Best Bets, which is a great list that will help you in that search.

I recently test-drove the Chevy Cruze Eco, which GM is touting as “the most fuel-efficient gasoline-powered vehicle in America.” The EPA does rate the Cruze Eco at 42 mpg on the highway when it’s equipped with the 6-speed manual transmission; the automatic 6-speed gets 37 mpg at its best. My mostly city driving in the automatic test car averaged just under 30 mpg.

Their name is a little hard to remember, but if you are in the market for a new or used auto, you definitely do not want to forget who the IIHS is. Formed over 50 years ago, the mission of the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety (IIHS) is to help reduce deaths, injuries, and property damage.

TrueCar.com recently put out its TrueTrends Auto Industry Intelligence report for the month of June and the information, once again, paints a great picture for consumers in the market to buy a new car.

The manufacturers are continuing to put solid incentives and rebates out, hoping to entice consumers off of the sidelines. And with June the kickoff of the bread and butter months for car dealers, they are willing to bend a bit to sell a car or two.

As is the case in any industry, the law of supply and demand is a huge driver in the automotive market. The ability to keep popular models flowing into dealership inventory is the key to success at both the dealership and manufacturer level.

NADAguides, one of the most trusted names in automotive analysis, recently released its Most in Demand Vehicles Report. The report is a comprehensive list of the hardest to find models as well as alternative choices for shoppers willing to go beyond their original ideas.

One of the most complex concepts consumers will encounter when trying to decide if buying or leasing is the best option for them, is “residual.”

What is residual value?

This number is the projected market value of a vehicle at a given point in time in the future.

So, when it comes to leasing, the residual value is used to help calculate how much a vehicle will depreciate (lose value) during the lease period…and thus how much the consumer should pay every month to lease the vehicle now.

In a world where image really is everything, consumer opinion can make or break a brand. Recognizing that, Kelley Blue Book – a longtime industry leader in automotive research and information – has just released its annual Brand Image Awards for 2011. The awards, which are based on detailed data from KBB Market Intelligence’s Brand Watch study and are derived from an online study of more than 12,000 in market auto shoppers, recognize the best of the best in 10 categories. These different categories leave no market uncovered.

Our friends at TrueCar.com recently released the May TrueTrends report, their monthly car buying industry trend report and, as it is jam packed with some fantastic information for new auto buyers, we thought we’d break down some of the more interesting tidbits for you.

You would think that after all Toyota went through with their “memorable for all the wrong reasons” 2010, the brand would have taken a hit in the many surveys and studies that are taken on the topic of dependability.

Car and Driver, one of the leading automotive publications dedicated to enthusiasts and auto reviews, recently announced their 10Best Cars for 2011. The full coverage of their 10Best selections can be found in the January magazine edition and on their website, CarandDriver.com.

Kiplinger Personal Finance recently launched their 2011 Car Buying Guide on their website, and published their "Top Picks" recommendations in the March 2011 magazine issue available now. Kiplinger's categorized autos in 11 categories and ranked them by price, performance, safety, roominess, and driving impressions. You can see their full research functionality on the Kiplinger website.

When it comes to measuring long term reliability and value, Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports Magazine) is one of the most respected sources in the industry. So for consumers, it's always helpful to see their ratings on new autos, as you should definitely consider their Top Picks as solid recommendations.

The Chevrolet Volt took top honors as the 2011 North American Car of the Year, while the 2011 Ford Explorer won the award for the 2011 North American Truck of the Year. The awards were announced at a news conference at the North American International Auto Show held in Detroit, Michigan. The awards are considered some of the most prestigious in the industry as the winners are chosen by a panel of 49 automotive journalists.